Federal employee unions irate after Perry promises to send civil servants who disagree with him to work in “some really God-awful place”

Gov. Rick Perry has drawn the ire of a number of federal labor unions following a statement he made on the campaign trail that those federal workers who don’t agree with his restructuring plans for federal agencies should be sent “to some really God-awful place” to work.

At a town hall in Derry, N.H., Perry repeated his campaign line about restructuring federal agencies, stating that “government should do a few things, but do those few things really, really well.”

Speaking about Health and Human Services workers, Perry said that those who try to “block” his redirection of federal grant money should be disposed of in the only way he sees possible.

“I don’t think you can fire federal bureaucrats, but you can reassign them. So reassign them to some really god-awful place,” he said to laughs from the crowd.

But federal workers unions aren’t laughing. William R. Dougan, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees, called Perry’s comments “irresponsible and insulting to the 2.1 million dedicated federal employees serving our country every day.” In Dougan’s view, Perry’s position on reassigning federal workers is a politically-based attack.

“It comes as no surprise that Governor Perry would launch such baseless political attacks on federal workers,” he said.

“He sees a political opportunity in painting federal workers as a symbol of big government, and he is exploiting it to the fullest. I find his rhetoric regarding federal employees despicable.”

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees in 31 different agencies, echoed Dougan’s thoughts. She said that Perry’s emphasis on federal workers as the problem was misguided.

“The problems we are facing in our country today are not the fault of the federal workforce. Despite significant staffing shortages, continual threats of government shutdowns and the fact that they are working under a two-year pay freeze, federal employees continue to do exemplary work protecting our borders, inspecting our food supply, providing services to our veterans, the elderly and the disabled, safeguarding nuclear materials and more,” she said.

Gaffe-prone Perry may have stepped in it again--this time, comments on reassigning federal workers infuriated federal workers' unions. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Kelley also pointed out that Perry got it wrong on firing federal employees.

“It is patently false to state that federal employees cannot be fired for failing to implement policies established by political leaders, but perhaps that is a fact that Gov. Perry forgot along with what federal agencies he would like to eliminate,” she said.

Dougan offered Perry a different perspective on what would constitute a “God-awful place”–and Dougan’s idea hit a bit closer to home than Perry might like.

“If Governor Perry wants to know what ‘a god awful place’ looks like, he should imagine Texas without thousands of dedicated federal employees defending its border, staffing its VA hospitals and extinguishing its wildfires,” he said.